GB1031443A - Improvements in or relating to the production of sugar - Google Patents

Abstract

<PICT:1031443/C6-C7/1> In extracting sugar from crushed sugar-containing plants, sufficient water is added to yield a mixture whose pH differs from 7, this mixture is passed through a substantially closed vessel and exposed therein to ultrasonic pulses generated by electric spark discharges in the mixture, which is simultaneously sterilized by the ozone produced. The ultrasonic pulses are regulated by varying the rate of flow of the mixture through the vessel or the intensity and/or frequency of the spark discharges. The mixture is fed, by a travelling belt 1, into a funnel 2 and conveyed, by a worm 8, into the upper end of a cylindrical vertical tube 6, through which the mixture passes and is discharged, by a worm 8a, into a vessel 12, kept at atmospheric pressure. The tube 6 is kept filled with the mixture, as by rotating the worm 8a at the same speed as, or slightly slower than, the worm 8. The tube 6 may be made of hard, resilient, synthetic plastics or resinous material, or of thin sheet steel lined with such material, and is preferably surrounded by a cushion f air 5, contained in an air-tight cylindrical jacket 4, secured to the tube by conical parts 3 and 7. Two electrodes 9 and 9a, e.g. of iron, are dispersed centrally in the tube 6, and their power leads pass, through pressure-tight, insulating bushes 10, to apparatus 11, which is provided with means for adjusting the inductance and capacity to regulate the frequency and intensity of the spark discharges and the ultrasonic pulses. The treated mixture, received in the vessel 12, may be filtered conventionally to yield raw juice, which may be purified conventionally and then chilled to freeze-out sugar crystals.